the Awesome Summer Journal

Even though it goes against my strict rule that one must never get too adventurous in the kitchen on a holiday, I’ve decided to tackle gluten-free galettes for tomorrow night. I’m doing a small test run and, if all goes well, I’ll be making them for a crazy Thanksgiving potluck we’ve been invited to here in Portland.

Did I mention I’ve never even made a galette before?

I’m trying to de-glutenize the ever famous Tartine’s recipe. I’ve got the dough chilling in the freezer as I type and, while my last adventure in GF baking failed miserably I’ve got higher hopes for this round. For starters, when I was finished rolling the butter into the flour, what I had on the counter actually looked like the photo in the book. That sure doesn’t happen every day.

And if I fail miserably this time, too? Well, I’ve always got back-up ingredients for my ginger chew cookies.

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.

Since I’ve been brushing up on my Thai cooking skills lately, I thought I’d precede any recipes I’ve got up my sleeves with a word on curry paste.

A lot of recipes ask that you make your own paste from scratch. While I have done this I don’t really recommend it unless you’re feeling adventurous. It takes more time and more money, and me…? Well, I’m lazy and poor, so that just won’t work.

For a long time I was a sucker and bought Thai Kitchen’s brand of curry paste. It’s not bad, just an unnecessary expense if you’ve got a decent Asian market in your neighborhood. These small 4 oz. jars go for around $3 to $3.50 at most supermarkets, but I can also get 4 oz. cans of Maesri curry paste for 78¢.

Seventy-eight cents!!

At first we thought, “There’s no way we can use a whole can at once.” Lucky for us, we were recovering suckers and had a few Thai Kitchen jars in the fridge waiting to be used, washed and filled with new curry paste.

I vividly remember the first Asian market I ever set foot in, and it blew my mind. It was Kanya Market back home in Redding, and I wanted to learn how to make sushi but was discouraged by the prices at Safeway.

After that day, I vowed to never buy Asian ingredients in an American supermarket again– the mark-up is insane on even the cheapest of things. Things like coconut milk, sauces and rice noodles are twice, sometimes triple the price.

We just went on a grocery trip today and spent $15. What’d we possibly drive out to SE 82nd to spend $15 on? 12 cans of coconut milk, 4 cans of curry paste and 1 package of wide rice noodles.

Score!

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.

The last couple of days I’ve allowed myself to really sit down and play in Photoshop. I don’t normally do this and, after looking back through the fruits of my leisure, I have no idea why. I had fun, figured things out and ended up with some shots I really love.

It all started with Lensbaby-envy, which grew into “I wish I knew how to use my Holga”-envy.* I decided that anything you could do by accident, I could do on purpose, and these photos are what I ended up with.

My only grievance about the process of faking lomography with Photoshop is that everything you do is deliberate. The very nature of setting out to fake it takes away the element of surprise that is so exciting when shooting film.

I told a friend earlier today that I wish Photoshop would come with a button that said “Surprise me.” That would make my day.

I did resort to closing my eyes a few times when using the lasso tool to produce the “light leak.” I guess that’s the closest we Photoshop addicts will ever come!

* I’ve had this thing for at least 5 years and have never successfully taken out the originally loaded roll of film. Pathetic, huh? If you want to come over and teach me how to use my Holga, I’ll make you chocolate covered peanut butter balls. **

** Yeah, Renee– I’m talking to you!

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.

Mayne Island Cabin
(via cobworks.com)

Cob House in Stenlille, Denmark
(via http://www.fornyetenergi.dk)

Cob Cottage Company
(via Year of Mud, an awesome blog that documents one man’s first experience building a cob house)

GOBCOBATRON
(via Year of Mud, this one’s blog owner’s home!)

Straw Bale Build Project
(via Quiet Earth)

Sunset Cottage
(via strawbale.com)

Portland Rebuild Centre (which I actually live down the road from)
(via ilovecob.com)

Meka Cottage
(via cobprojects.info)

Spiral Straw Bale’s “Truth Window”
(via naturalhomes.org)

Cob Skyscrapers
(via ilovecob.com)

A few years ago I had the opportunity to tour the straw bale house of family friends, Jim and Nancy, who built their home on top of a hill in Old Shasta, California. Why I didn’t bring a camera with me, I’ll never know. Their home is amazing; the thought and clear intent that went into each room astonished me with every corner we turned.

It was only moments after setting foot on their property before my addiction was born… It was love at first sight. If I ever get the chance to go back, I’m gonna photograph the heck out of it!

Chris and I have always toyed with the idea of building our own straw bale home someday. We both love the aesthetic and awareness involved in alternative construction. And, I know I have a tendency to make mean-spirited jokes about hippies, but I’ve even gotten used to the idea of possibly living in a house that had (gulp) composting toilets. Yeah, ew, right? But, if that’s the price to pay for having the complete freedom to literally sculpt your dream home with your own bare hands, then so be it.

About once a year I go on a straw bale Google-binge. This week I filled my yearly quota and decided to unload my archive of inspiration. Maybe it’ll spark some love at first sight with one of you dear readers, as well!

As an aside, I actually found a friend of my mother’s on a natural building website– I didn’t even know she had a straw bale home! Small world, smaller internet.

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.

Salem turned out to be exactly as I’d expected it, which isn’t a good or bad thing. While I didn’t make it to the coffee shop in a double decker bus, I did get a pretty grand tour of the city.

My official welcome to Salem is probably a bit too revealing of Ben and I’s sense of humor, so I’ll skip straight to our first stop after I arrived at the Amtrak Station: the Capitol Building!

I got to peek inside the Senate and House of Representative rooms, which were immaculate and pretty majestic feeling.

There was also a tiny but neat collection of local rocks, stones and other things.

Did some thrifting, too. One of the stores had an endless collection of ceramic shoes.

Another store had the cutest little tea cup and a can of Calumet baking powder that is as huge as it is old (I looked inside and it was over half full! Crazy).

We caught Inglourious Basterds at the Northern Lights theater pub for 3 bucks, and preceded the viewing with a visit to Daynight Donuts which bakes their goods not once but twice daily!

A half dozen donuts were just the beginning of my pig-out on food I don’t normally eat. Breakfast alone was epic: eggs, sourdough pancakes, bacon (for the 2nd time in my life), orange juice and home-brewed latte.

Delicious as it all was, I certainly paid for it on that bumpy bus ride home Saturday evening.

There was much to photograph at Ben’s as his Grandpa has all kinds of senior citizen due-dah and old camera gear sprinkled throughout the house. I tried to come up with clever schemes to swipe his Rolleiflex… I mean, he’s 95– he wouldn’t know the real thing from a cardboard box painted black with a pair of Lennon shades glued to the front, would he?

Oh, and of course video games were involved! It was sort of the whole point of my visit. We played Worms: Open Warfare 2 all night till I couldn’t sit up anymore. Then we retired to our adjacent rooms and played from our beds. And when we woke up in the morning? Ben made breakfast and we played more Worms until it was time to grab some lunch and take me back to the Amtrak station.

To call it a good weekend would be an understatement!

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.

The other night I used up the last of our potatoes trying to re-create my favorite Thai dish (80% success rate, recipe soon!), which we followed up with some piping hot mugs of hot cocoa that finished off the last of our milk, too. Needless to say we were kind of lacking for breakfast ingredients the next morning.

Luckily, I had some tasty morning sweets to tide me over till lunch. And of course, eggs! The sweets came from my best friend, whom I’ve already mentioned as my turnover supplier. Turns out he bakes a mean blueberry muffin, too.

Mmph, so good!

On another note, I’m taking Amtrak down to Salem this weekend, so I’ll be away from the internets until Saturday night (*sob*!). I’ve never been, but I hear there are some worthwhile sights, including a coffee shop inside a double-decker bus! Expect photos when I return. :)

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.

(November 1st, 2009 at 3:04 PM)

(November 6th, 2009 at 4:03 PM)

(November 11th, 2009 at 9:56 AM)

When I lived in Arcata I found myself staring out one of my bedroom windows constantly. The weather in Humboldt can be described as schizophrenic, at best, so there were always interesting things happening out the window, which faced the massive Behavioral & Social Sciences building on campus.

I kept a photographic record of the constantly changing weather and how it interacted with the building. At the end of our time in Arcata I made a mosaic and gave it the incredibly innovative and mind-blowingly genius title of “My Bedroom Window.”

In our new apartment I find myself similarly aware of the light that wanes and waxes, varying in intensity, on our living room walls each day.

I’ve always been drawn to these patterns (”real life light leaks,” as I like to refer to them), and now living in an apartment whose entire West-facing wall is covered in windows, well, I’m a little bit in Heaven over here.

So here’s to a new series of “same but different” photographs that are already giving an uncomfortably accurate insight to our daily lives. Yes, that’s cardboard taped to the bottom of our ottoman. Wouldn’t wanna scratch those precious hardwood floors! :)

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.

The other day my best friend drove up from Salem and hung out for the weekend. In honor of the rain we hopped over to Caffe Destino on Fremont for an undeniably good combination of coffee + video games.

We linked our Gameboys together and battled out several matches in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. I must say, this game is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I’m a sucker for tactical RPGs, and the simplicity makes it easy to pick-up and put-down, unlike other games whose learning curves thwart my casual gameplay.

Plus, thanks to the auto-handicap feature I actually stood a chance against Ben’s squads, which were 10+ levels higher than me. Good times!

Hit me up if you have this game, or any other DS game with wireless battles. Pokemon, Worms– I’m always up for a challenge!

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.

Yesterday I posted this photo as the 11th shot in my 52 Weeks project. I got a few emails asking how I did it and thought this would be a fun way to kick off a small series of tips & tricks for post-processing your photos.*

I’ve tried making shots like this before and they never turn out– I always just look like a giant, or my butt is missing, etc. The key to making floating shots is a tripod and low horizon (something I’m still grasping at), but not so low that the camera is looking under you.

This will make more sense in a minute, but on to the tutorial!

Before you even open Photoshop your need to set your tripod up and take a photo of an empty space– in this case, my living room. Preferably without the cat cameo, but Felix just couldn’t help himself and I had a great time trying to clone out his reflection later on (…NOT!).

Next, sit / stand / lay on top of something and take another photo. I chose my ottoman, but something that isn’t so squishy would work better (stool / box / etc).

Make sure your camera is situated low (this creates the floating illusion), but not so low that it’s looking underneath you (or you will be missing body parts when you erase your stool / box / etc).

Open up Photoshop and paste Shot #2 over Shot #1 as a new layer.

Add a layer mask to Shot #2 by clicking on the icon of the circle in the square in the layers tab (see above). The layer mask will show up as a big, white rectangle next to Shot #2’s thumbnail.

Click the layer mask to select it, then select the brush tool and begin painting the portions you want to disappear with black. If you make a mistake, you can switch your brush’s color to white and paint it back.

And that’s what I did yesterday afternoon after coffee & video games at Fremont Place. :P

Like I said, I’m still trying to get the hang of this effect. My lack of shkills is what brought me to adding a couple of textured layers. I did this to give it less of a clean and crisp look since my work was anything but.

Feel free to post your results– or some of your favorite floating shots– in the comments!

* The great thing about Photoshop is the amount of freedom you have to achieve similar effects in a vast amount of ways. I don’t consider myself an authority or expert in Photoshop– I still stay up way past my bedtime trying to figure things out, too. This post and those to follow will just be explanations of how I’ve come to do things. By all means, find what works best for you!

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.

Some years ago we received the Vegan World Fusion cookbook for Christmas, and it kinda changed my life. I’ve never had a collection of such reliable recipes– especially vegan ones. And, while I haven’t tried them all, each one I do try is more delicious and perfect than the last.

So, of course I was beyond excited to move to Portland where one of the writers’ restaurant is located. Chris took me out for lunch at their new location on NE Broadway and 15th for my birthday last month, and it was even more delicious than you might’ve imagined.

Chris got the monk bowl, I had the chili quesadilla and we split a plate of live nachos.

My only complaint– which has nothing to do with the restaurant itself– is that the food made us pretty ill later on. We don’t eat live food on a regular basis, and it sort of wreaked havoc on our digestive system. If and when we go back for more, maybe we’ll just take it easy and split something small!

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.

Earlier this summer I had an egg that wasn’t scrambled or an omelet for the first time in my life. It was a poached egg with a side of Parmesan-crusted toast, avocado, tomato and basil from a cafe in Chico, CA.

I was hooked.

With some guidance from Chris’s parents, who are veteran egg eaters, I quickly learned all the tricks behind making a tasty fried egg. That’s not to say I was all that great applying those tricks, mind you!

And, to make matters worse, since our kitchen is as dinky as our cat is crazy, we’ve been mainly using a non-stick wok as our all-purpose cookware. The non-stick surface gives eggs what I can only describe as a “spongy” texture (ewww!).

So, we bought a stainless steel fry pan and have had nothing but a world of woes. Every egg we fried got stuck, making cooking and cleaning a huge pain in the ass.

Thanks to some serious trial and error (and my determination to not use a non-stick pan for everything), I finally mastered the art of frying eggs in stainless steel. The answer is in the lid!

1 Egg, as fresh as can be 1-2 tsp Butter or oil Salt and Pepper

1. Heat butter or oil in pan over medium-low heat. On my electric stove top, I set the dial to 3 or 3 1/2. Make sure it’s heated thoroughly before moving on (water should sizzle if you flick wet fingers at it). 2. Crack the egg into the pan, making sure not to get any shells in the egg. Salt and pepper it, if you wish. 3. Put a lid on it! I learned that lidding the pan as it fries will create condensation that drips down into the pan, releasing the egg and keeping it from sticking. It was like magic when I took my egg out today. 4. Depending on how you like yours done, it should be finished in about 3-5 minutes, or until the egg whites have set completely around the yolk.

Here’s another tip: When it’s time to clean up that stainless steel pan, if there is food crusted to the bottom of it, simply add enough water to cover and put it over medium heat. Once the water warms up, the food will release with some ease.

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.

The other day I heard it was in the 80’s back home. Clearly, Redding hasn’t gotten the memo that it’s Fall… But that’s no surprise considering it generally tends to only have two seasons down there: summer and winter.

We’ve been taking advantage of the crisp weather with walks through the neighborhood, and finishing things off with a good TV show while snuggled next to the heater. My hot cocoa consumption has jumped through the roof these last two weeks.

The leaf in Chris’s hand fell right onto his lap while we were sitting in the park the other day, soaking up the evening sun. He put it in his back pocket and, as far as I know, it’s still there.

On an unrelated note, I want to give a big thanks to everyone who replied to my last post! I am so tickled by your comments and will get to responding very soon!

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.

(via Mary…)

When I first started this blog I couldn’t be sure that more than just my family members and a handful of classmates were reading my posts, but these days I get more comments from people I’ve never met and know close to nothing about! I have a sneaking suspicion that there are quite a few lurkers among us, too :)

I’ve seen other bloggers do this, so I wanted to give it a go– Let’s get to know each other!

Who are you?
Where do you live?
What’s your most favorite TV show / movie?
What time period would you live in, if you could choose?
Is there anything you’d like to see more / less of on my blog?

And, of course, if you have a website / Flickr / etc be sure to include it!

Obviously, you know my name and where I live (or maybe you don’t? Kim! Portland, OR!). My most favorite TV show ever is Battlestar Galactica. And if I could live in any time period it would be the old west, though I know I’d likely die of some disease that could’ve been cured 20 years later with penicillin, hehe.

Your turn!

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.

(via Paul Israel)

I’m feeling unusually drained– plus Felix was never one to live up to his duties as a Halloween cat– so I thought I’d snag one of Paul’s festive cat portraits for this Caturday. He’s been growing quite the amazing gallery of street cats on his Flickr lately… And what’s not to love about a Cat-o-Lantern?! Paul’s is definitely a stream worth visiting for fellow cat enthusiasts! You will get your “aww” for the day, and then some.

Oh, right– it’s Halloween! Anyone doing anything exciting? Or are we all getting old together?

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.

As a bit of an experiment mixed with unemployment blues, Chris and I have started paying for everything in cash and only allowing ourselves to spend a certain amount of money each week. This has forced me out of my mourning of avocados (sometimes I so miss California…) and into a seasonal diet.

Is it any great mystery that the first five letters in delicata are also in delicious? (No.) Has anything ever been ruined by being smothered in butter, salt and pepper? (No… Maybe.) And who knew eating on the cheap could be so delicious? (Taco Bell doesn’t count.)

And with that, I give you this week’s eats: squarsh, squarsh, squarsh, and a little bit of sweet potatoes and greens.

1 medium sized Delicata/Acorn squash 1-2 Tbsp Butter Salt and Pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 2. Cut squash lengthwise and remove the seeds (save them for roasting if you’d like!). 3. Place thin pads of butter inside each squash. Alternatively, you can melt your butter and brush it on, but I don’t have a microwave so this works fine. 4. Salt and pepper each halve, then place on a flat baking pan and place in oven. 5. Cook for 15 minutes, remove briefly to re-distribute the melting butter. Cook for another 15 minutes, or until a fork pokes through the middle with ease.

Sometimes, if we’re feeling fancy, I like to throw in a cubed sweet potato and serve it on a bed of greens (kale, baby spinach and green onions). The green onions offer a subtle bite to compliment the sweet, buttery flavor of the squash.

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.

(via riot jane)

Chris recently posted a song on his blog that I had wrote the lyrics and (very basic) chord changes to some years ago. He recorded a version of it upon finding the text file on his computer and called it “Loud and Brave.”

Now he’s asking folks to record their own version of the song and share it on his blog, in a “I show you mine, you show me yours” fashion. You can grab the lyrics and chords from this post.

You know… Since I’m totally tone deaf and can’t record my own version for myself. ;)

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.

As promised, here’s the awesomest flower in all of Portland: Black Magic.

And to keep the geek party rolling, this rose reminded me of a piranha plant. Doesn’t it look like it just wants to eat you up? Scary!

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.

Ever since I got Chris into blogging, he’s been digging through his old recordings and finding some pretty long and forgotten stuff, including a goof-off ode to Felix that I’d written as a joke and sometimes played for friends who came over to our apartment.

Take that song, add a lazy Sunday and Windows Movie Maker, and this is what you get: a totally ridiculous slideshow of my sweet Felix, with horrible backing music provided by yours truly!*

Enjoy!

* Unlike some bloggers out there, I wasn’t blessed with a gorgeous voice. I’m actually really awful, borderlining on tone deaf. Consider this your warning! :P

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.

Earlier this month I had my birthday and my SIL sent a card with a penguin wishing me a “seriously COOL birthday.” And, in her handwriting below it said, “That IS why you moved to Portland, right?”

Well, we’ve had some pretty brisk days since the big move, but within the last week I’ve really been able to feel it coming.

On the streets, the trees are turning (and they look amazing). In the apartment, there’s condensation everywhere (Hey! Who’s breathing?!). Felix is always balled up somewhere warm– currently one inch away from our space heater.

And me? I’m hogging Chris’s new wicker chair, drinking hot cocoa and finally learning the value of not being on the computer every minute of the day.

Originally published at the awesome summer journal. Please leave any comments there.